Wordless Wednesday - Pedigree Chart

For Wordless Wednesday, we are posting a Pedigree Chart that has been donated to the Lake Havasu Genealogical Society. We were told that these charts were found at the old McCulloch Chainsaw Factory. A strange place to find such an item. As a way to help preserve this artifact, it is being posted here.

Therefore, what you see is what we got.

Lloyd Prestwich (Part 2)

by Denyce Cribbs

My last post was about Lloyd Prestwich, and how his niece had preserved an oral history of his life and transcribed it for future generations.  A couple of questions remained.  Lloyd mentioned that his parents had nine boys and two girls, but he only ever described eight boys including himself.  Had one of the boys died as a child??  I decided to look on Ancestry to see what else I could learn about the family.

The list here is what you can quickly find on Ancestry about George Prestwich, Sr.’s children.  Each person’s data is backed up by birth, death, marriage, and military records.  Even the missing child is shown on several Ancestry trees.  He is shown as Randall Prestwich (1889-1891), so indeed the ninth boy died in childhood.  What the Ancestry records can never get at is what these people were like as individuals, and how they were remembered by their family.  Margie Prestwich’s interview with her uncle (Leslie) Lloyd Prestwich, the transcription of which was donated to our library, sheds some light on these siblings’ individual personalities.  Read below for Lloyd’s descriptions in his own words.

My older brother, George, was a small man in size more like Mother.  He was a quiet person but had a great talent for carving and painting.  He would take a board about 12-14 inches wide, carve any kind of animal one desired, wild or tame, and then paint them.  These he usually made into comb cases and sold.  If he had lived where his work could have been displayed he could have easily have become famous in himself and made considerable money.

As I recall, my brother Wesley had his talents mostly in being a good farmer and having large well-matched teams of horses.  He won many pulling contests with his teams and he loved to have the harnesses decorated with celluloid, different colored rings, and silver buttons.

My brother Mert was foreman in the sugar mill and this and his family was his interest.  He kept a neat yard and garden at his home.
               

Ernest was a farmer and spent his time in this.  As for my sisters, they both married and beyond knowing they were good housekeepers, wives, and mothers, I can give no more detailed information.
               

Clarence was a hard worker, was wounded in WWI.  When he married, lived in Delta, Utah, where he ran a transfer trucking company.  He suffered sunstroke while working in the sun which caused his death.  He left a large family but one which worked and played together.  Under the guidance of their mother, they all received a good college education through family cooperation.
                

Newell, just older than I, was one of my mother’s favorites.  This perhaps because he was the most helpful with the housework.  He could do any of it, knew how to cook, sort the washing and other things usually pertaining to the housekeeping.  He was a gentle man, thoughtful and considerate at home and this carried over into his married life.  His wife became very crippled with arthritis so Newell in addition to his daily work at the mill, did most of the housework.  Newell was active in church work all his life. 
               

Osmer was younger than I was and, as the baby, was pampered more than any of the rest of us.  I had married and had my own home while he was still a teenager.  In his mature years he became an excellent electrician.
              

A year after I was married I was called to serve in WWI and returned home.  I soon went to work for the mill and then after a few months I got a job in Idaho Falls and moved there.  The work there was in the Preston E. Blair Auto Company as their service manager.
             

My brothers’ paths and mine didn’t cross too often after my marriage.  I remember them as all being honest hard-working people.  A family their parents could be proud of.
 

Mr. Lloyd Prestwich himself passed away in 1982 in California.  Many thanks to him and his family for sharing these rich memories of his “ordinary family.”  I hope you’ll consider interviewing your family members and preserving the memories of your heritage.

Lloyd Prestwich

by Denyce Cribbs

In going through our library’s surname files last summer, I was looking for stories that might be interesting to our members and others.  I indexed the list of names that we had files for, with most containing genealogies and records that could easily be found online these days.  But there were some gems, and I would like to share one of those here.

I came across the transcribed tape-recording that Lloyd Prestwich did with his niece, Margie, on 14 Nov 1974.  In the nine pages of the recorded interview, Lloyd describes his childhood in Utah, his later move to Idaho, and the memories he holds of his parents, his upbringing and his siblings.  Here he describes his recollection of his father, George Prestwich, Sr.

My earliest recollection of my parents was when we lived in Lehi, Utah.  I remember my father as a rather gentle man, not very prone to correct or abuse anyone.  I remember he was working on the railroad at the time and sometimes was away overnight.  Also, that occasionally he would let me go on the train with him, which went down a branch line.  I believe they called it the San Pedro Line at that time.  Many people who were on the train would give me candy and other things to me.  It was a treat.  I can vividly remember the beautiful curly hair he had which turned snow white in his later life but he never lost it.  He also had a mustache, which he took great pains to keep waxed and curled on the ends.  He was a happy man and had a hearty laugh.  He liked people.

Lloyd goes on to describe his life without indoor plumbing, working on the sugar beet farms in Idaho, playing baseball with his brothers and sisters, going to town dances as a teenager.  He describes his life as modest, but always with good food, shelter, clothes on their backs, and parents who loved them.  His story is rich with details that you could never get from a typical genealogy record.

Margie, I don’t know if this will be of any benefit to you but our life was the life of just an ordinary family.  Unless you are an artist or writer, it is difficult to take family situations like this and make them into any great importance.  Again I stress, we were just an ordinary family.  We did as most people in those days. We associated with people of our own age and, as far as the older people were concerned, there wasn’t much partying especially among those who were on the wage level of my parents.

Lloyd relates what happens to each of his siblings, and notes that he is the last one living at the time.  He stresses that he had a life well-lived.  Consider recording an interview with one of your relatives.  Their memories can provide a wealth of information that could be lost to time.  Tape recorders and tapes aren’t required anymore.  Affordable, small digital recording devices can be purchased which will hold the entire interview, so you can preserve both your loved one’s memories and voice.  It’s easy!!